Experiments in Hitch-hiking: What works best?

Experiments in Hitch-hiking: What works best?

Last year I marveled openly at the lack of research into hitch-hiking, given its ubiquity and how passionately opinionated people seem to be on the subject - it's either the greatest thing out or a certain suicide. Often people wonder just how well it works. How many people actually pull over? Or, better said, what portion of passing cars pulls over?

There was a period, from 1966 to 1975 where the diligent student will find a handful of studies that either set out to answer just this question or used hitch-hikers to study another (related) question. Not many, eight in all, made their way into my hands over recent years, three of which remained unpublished (and hence somewhat hard to find). I'd be pleased to learn of more, but for the moment this looks like all we have. Extracts from a golden age so to speak, when a handful of people took the subject seriously enough to conduct and report on some experiments using hitch-hikers as bait and drivers as quarry.

I'd like to summarise just what these researchers did and their results. The studies are diverse, were executed in diverse locations and yielded a wide range of results. All but one researcher recorded the proportion of cars which pulled over (counting ride offers and passing cars). The one exception, Bryan, didn't count passing cars, but watched the clock (measured wait times). Tables 1-4 below summarises the results and practices succinctly.

Table 1: Summary of Results

Experimenters

When

Where

Min

Max

Min condition

Max condition

Morgan et al.

1975

Seattle, WA?

2.1%

11.1%

eye contact/beard/begging

eye contact/breasts

Clifford & Cleary

1971

Madison, WI?

3.1%

6.6%

M&M/sports or grubbies

F&F/sports

Bryan

1966

Los Angeles, CA

0/hour

9/hour

Low dependency

High dependency

Tobin & Sexton

1972

San Jose, CA?

0.9%

7.6%

Male/town/business/day

Female/highway/business/night

Crassweller et al.

1972

Dallas, TX & Stamford, CT

1.2%

16.1%

Stamford/upper/well dressed

Dallas/lower/hip

Baugher

1974

Fresno, CA

1.4%

2.2%

Beard

No beard

Snyder et al.

1974

Palo Alto, CA

2.0%

9.5%

Male & female/no stare

Female/stare

Pomazal & Clore

1973

Champaign-Urbana, IL

6.0%

36.0%

Male/no car

Female/car trunk down, no tire

Pomazal & Clore

1973

Champaign-Urbana, IL

4.0%

26.0%

Male/high dependency

Female/low dependency

Morgan et al. prelim.

1975

Seattle, WA?

3.7%

16.2%

Male/no eye contact

Female/eye contact

Notes:

? implies the location of the experiments is inferred not documented.

Morgan et al. conducted a preliminary study for which they reported results but failed to document the experimental conditions.

Table 2.

Min is the minimum success rate of hitch-hikers among the trials conducted and Max is the maximum success rate.

Min and Max condition summarise the conditions of the trial which recorded the minimum and maximum success rates. For interpretation consult Table 3 below.

Table 2: Summary of Trials

Experimenters

Year

Variables

Conditions

Trials
per
condition

Trials

Duration
of
Trial

Total

Morgan et al.

1975

4

12

6

72

15 minutes

18 hours

Clifford & Cleary

1971

3

8

2

16

1 hour

16 hours

Bryan

1966

1

2

4

8

1 hour

8 hours

Tobin & Sexton

1972

4

16

20

320

1 ride offer

320 ride offers

Crassweller et al.

1972

3

12

8

96

1 ride offer

96 ride offers

Baugher

1974

1

2

15

30

1 ride offer

30 ride offers

Snyder et al.

1974

3

24

1

24

50 passing vehicles

1200 passing vehicles

Pomazal & Clore

1973

2

6

6

36

100/6 passing vehicles

600 passing vehicles

Pomazal & Clore

1973

2

4

4

16

25 passing vehicles

400 passing vehicles

Notes:

Variables is the number variables which were studied.

Conditions is how many unique combinations of those variables were trialed.

Trials per condition is how many trials were conducted for each condition.

Trials is the total number of trials.

Duration of trial is how long each trial lasted.

Total is how long the whole experiment lasted (in hours, ride offers or passing vehicles).

Dependency
(beside car with trunk up and spare tire/beside car with trunk down and no spare tire/no car)

Pomazal & Clore

2

Sex
(M/F)

Dependency
(knee brace & arm sling/healthy)

Table 4: Summary of Observations Recorded

Experimenters

Observations Recorded

Morgan et al.

8

Count of passing vehicles

Count of ride offers

Number of passengers

Sex of driver

Apparent age of driver

Apparent age of passengers

Type of vehicle

Apparent age of vehicle

Clifford & Cleary

2

Count of passing vehicles
(except busses and taxis)

Count of ride offers

Bryan

1

Count of ride offers

Tobin & Sexton

2

Count of passing vehicles
(Frequency)

Time to ride offer
(Latency)

Crassweller et al.

5

Count of passing vehicles
(excluding taxis and police)

Age of driver

Number of passengers

Reason for offer

Six questions on liberalism

Baugher

7

Count of passing vehicles

Drivers hair
(length/mustache/beard)

Number of passengers

Sex of driver

Apparent age of driver

Race of driver

Type of vehicle

Snyder et al.

3

Count of passing vehicles
(which could easily stop)

Count of ride offers

Apparent age of driver

Pomazal & Clore

7

Count of passing vehicles

Count of ride offers

Number of passengers

Sex of driver

Apparent age of driver

Race of driver

Brief description of vehicle

Pomazal & Clore

7

Count of passing vehicles

Count of ride offers

Number of passengers

Sex of driver

Apparent age of driver

Race of driver

Brief description of vehicle

Summary

In summary then, of 8 studies we can trace, conducted between 1966 and 1975 (no-one since seems to have displayed any interested in the matter), the hitch-hiking success rate was recorded between 0.9% and 36% (that's between roughly 1 car in 100 and 1 in 3). The highest rate of success (36%) recorded was for a lone female hitching a ride beside car parked by the side of the highway near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The lowest rate (0.9%) of success recorded was for a lone male in business clothing hitching a ride from downtown San Jose, California during the day.

Experimenters examined between 1 and 4 of the following variables:

sex

company

dress

eye contact

location

gesture

time of day, dependency

secondary sexual characteristics

socio-economic environment

They examined between 2 and 24 distinct conditions (combinations of these variables) and conducted between 1 and 20 trials per condition for a total of between 8 and 320 trials.

Three types of trial were conducted with durations ranging as follows:

For a fixed duration, 15 minutes to 1 hour per trial for a total of 8 to 18 hours.

For a fixed count of passing vehicles, 16 to 50 passing vehicles for a total of 400 to 1200 vehicles.

Until the first ride offer, for a total of 30 to 320 ride offers.

They recorded between 1 and 8 of the following observations:

Count of passing vehicles

Count of ride offers

Time to ride offer

Number of passengers

Sex of driver

Age of driver

Race of driver

Hair style of driver

Apparent age of passengers

Type of vehicle

Age of vehicle

Reason for ride offer

Drivers views (on liberalism)

These studies can be made available to anyone upon request. Just contact me with an expression of interest. They form an excellent basis for modern day comparative studies - do we still see between 1/100 and 1/3 cars pulling over for downtown businessmen and women in distress? And if not, how do 21st century hitch-hiking success rates compare?

If you're feeling generous and want to express gratitude for the work presented here, by all means donate some money.